US, Australia, Holland boycott Durban II

The Obama Administration has officially stated that it will not attend next week's anti-racism conference being hosted by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

A press release from the State Department noted that while the final draft declaration to be adopted at the close of the conference had been amended to remove direct references to Israel, it still contained unacceptable indirect hostility toward the Jewish state.

Washington is also unhappy with language in the declaration suggesting it is a crime to criticize Islam.

On Sunday, Australia and the Netherlands announced that they, too, would boycott the event for the same reasons as the US.

Dubbed "Durban II," the conference is a follow-up of the 2001 UN anti-racism summit held in Durban, South Africa. That even quickly descended into an orgy of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric. The draft declaration for next week's summit explicitly upholds the "findings" of the previous gathering.

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